In the parking and permit fee collection industry, a number of methods have been devised for collecting fees and for providing payees with proof of having paid the required fee. Some systems depend on the integrity of the patron, such as those in which the patron is given an envelope to place the fee in and a tear-off stub to serve as a receipt. However, this system offers no immediate method for verifying that the fee has actually been paid. Thus, a dishonest person can take the receipt without having paid the required fee. The risk that such a person's failure to pay the fee will be detected is low. Despite these shortcomings, such “honor-based” collection systems are in wide use because they are inexpensive to install and because they require no power source, which may be difficult to provide in remote locations.
The collection of fees for fee-based activities using unattended collection stations has long been practiced. In particular, in connection with the collection of fees at an automobile parking lot, armored boxes having slots through which fees may be deposited have long been used. In many instances, the individual parking spots in a parking lot are numbered, and a corresponding numbered slot in the armored box is provided. In use, a user parks his or her car in a numbered slot, and deposits the appropriate fee in the slot corresponding to the chosen parking spot. The user fee is then held in an individual box within the larger armored box corresponding to the numbered slot. Enforcement of the prescribed charges requires parking lot personnel to travel to the fee collection box, remove a padlock securing the cover of the armored fee collection box, and to manually ensure that the proper amount has been paid for each of the occupied parking spots. Although the system employs mechanical components that are simple in design and relatively inexpensive, they suffer from a number of disadvantages.
Among the disadvantages of such slot-type fee collection boxes is the ease with which fraud can be perpetrated against the parking lot owner. For instance, an accurate accounting of a day's receipts relies entirely on the attentiveness and honesty of the person collecting the fees. Therefore, there is little incentive for an attendant to forgo stealing all or a portion of the collected fees. In addition, it is relatively easy for a user to pay less than the prescribed amount without penalty. For example, a user may submit payment for one hour of parking, yet use the parking space for more than one hour. Such underpayment is difficult to police without frequent checks by parking lot personnel of the fees collected and the cars parked in the lot. Another example of underpayment is where a patron, having paid for a full day's parking fee, leaves earlier in the day, and that person's place is then taken by another, who does not pay. In this instance, the lot foregoes fees that could have been collected had use of the individual parking spots been accurately tracked.
An additional disadvantage of such fee collection boxes is that they require a user to have exact change. Also, they provide the user with no receipt to prove proper payment, and no reminder of when the time paid for has expired.
With respect to user fees collected by state and national parks, an honor system has typically been used. Generally, an armored box having a slot for insertion of the proper fee is provided. A user who, for example, wishes to pay for a camping spot must typically enter the number of the camping spot on a provided envelope, place the proper payment in that envelope, and slide the envelope through the slot of the armored box. Although a tear-off receipt is often provided, there is no independent verification that the proper fee has been paid. Also, such a system offers no way for a user to know whether any camping spots remain, without actually traveling to the desired spot and making a determination as to whether the spot is occupied. Furthermore, because such unattended fee collection boxes are often located in remote areas, it is often difficult to send park rangers or other personnel to collect paid fees and to ensure that users have made proper payment.
More sophisticated fee collection systems include electronic means to detect whether a specified amount of money has been provided to a collection box. These systems may then provide the patron with a receipt. However, such systems typically require that the patron take the printed receipt to, for example, a park ranger, before receiving the required decal or other method of proving that the required fees have been paid. Also, such devices lack flexibility in the types of permits and fees charged by any one such machine. These machines also lack the ability to be integrated within a larger network. Furthermore, such devices typically require a large amount of power, making installation in remote locations difficult.
In the context of fee collection devices for use in parking lots, automated systems may allow a user to purchase the use of a spot and issue the user a printed receipt indicating the time paid for and serving as proof that the fee has in fact been paid. Other devices may issue a printed ticket at an entry gate, and encode information regarding the date and time of entry on a magnetic stripe. Upon returning to the parking lot to remove his or her car, a user may pay the incurred fee at an automated device. This device may determine the proper fee by reading the magnetic stripe on the issued card to determine the amount of time the parking spot has been in use. The parking machine may then encode the stripe on the issued ticket as being paid, and allow a prescribed amount of time for the user to exit the lot. The user exits the lot by presenting the validated ticket to a card reader associated with the exit gate. The ticket is then collected by the exit gate, and the user is allowed to leave the lot.
However, these automated machines suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, it is difficult to re-program such machines to perform different or additional functions. This is because conventional automated fee collection devices have employed microcontrollers having a single operating program hard coded in associated EPROM, EEPROM or ROM. Accordingly, re-programming such devices generally requires that the entire program be erased and a new program encoded in memory (e.g. in the case of EPROM and EEPROM), or replacement of the entire chip (e.g., where the microcontroller has ROM). Regardless of the type of memory, the re-programming of a microcontroller requires that the fee collection device be shut down. Also as a result of the use of microcontrollers, the number of functions that such devices can perform is severely limited. Therefore, such devices have generally been provided with only one operational mode.
Additionally, conventional automated fee collection devices are difficult to service. In particular, the opening of such devices to service the interior removes the devices from service, as essential componentry on the cover is then disassociated with internal components. Further, even during servicing that does not require removal of the machine face plate, other servicing operations may require the machine to be removed from service. For instance, any changes made to the operating program of the machine generally requires that the existing program be entirely erased from memory, wherein a new program containing the changes is loaded in its place. Because the entire program must be erased and then replaced, the machine is unable to function during such operations. Existing automated fee collection devices also are vulnerable to vandalism and theft.
For the above stated reasons, it would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for the automated collection of fees and dispensing of tickets. In particular, it would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for automatically collecting fees and making a record of payment that can be easily modified to perform different or additional functions. In addition, it would be advantageous to provide such a method and device that is economical to operate and reliable.